


A Watcher's Oath

by draca (wyvernwolf)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-03
Updated: 2010-03-03
Packaged: 2017-10-07 16:40:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyvernwolf/pseuds/draca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I will not stand back and watch her from afar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Watcher's Oath

Spike once told her that all Slayers have a death wish. And as much as I don't want to admit it, it is true. It's to be expected after all. These children, we ask so much of them; too much sometimes. They go through such horrors night after night and are just supposed to shrug them off and continue. Is it a wonder that after a while, they dream of death.

What Spike doesn't know however, is that death wishes aren't confined to Slayers. Their Watcher's are just as susceptable. After all, we spend every day with these girls. We train them, teach them, care for them, watch them grow up, and then we're expected to send them out night after night to fight the evils out there. Never knowing if tonight will be the night that they don't return. We're taught to stay aloof, to not get involved, but as I discovered, it isn't that easy.

The Council teaches us that when one slayer dies, another will be called. So we're not expected to mourn them, no, we need only to wait for news of the next slayer, the next child to be offered in our war against the darkness. When did The Council become so inured to the prospect of death in these child warriors? Indeed, they even anticipate it and prepare her potential replacements. How many even know the names of these champions?

We come out of training with all these high ideals, all these opinions on how to properly treat the Slayer, but what isn't taught is that the Slayer is a young girl, entrusted to your care. That with each passing day, no matter how hard you try to stay aloof, to not let your emotions bcome involved, one day you will wake with the realisation that you _do_ care, that the lives of these children _matter_. And when that realisation hits, everything learnt is thrown to the wayside. It becomes not merely a matter of watching over the Slayer, it becomes a matter of watching over _your_ Slayer.

It took me a while to come to this realisation but the moment it happened, everything that I'd been taught by the Council flew out the window and I found myself reassessing everything about what being a Watcher entailed.

The Slayer is not a weapon. She's a young girl, chosen, because of the strength and goodness of her soul, to battle the forces of darkness.

It wasn't just about teaching, observing, researching and making records. Being a Watcher meant all that, but above all, it meant caring for the girl who was your Slayer.

I care for this girl, and I can't and won't pretend that I don't. I will not stand back and watch her from afar. She will not face her calling alone. This slayer, _my_ slayer, will have her Watcher by her side, in all things. If this means that I will be cut off from The Council, so be it. She is worth that and so much more.

And as I watch my slayer leave each night, every single time that she walks out that door, I say a silent prayer to all the gods I know that she be kept safe. And every time she is returned to me, I can but say a heartfelt thank you that my prayers were answered.

The nights are never longer, time never passes as slow, as when my slayer is out there fighting to save our world.

And I know that if she were to fall tonight, I would be following her shortly. For what is life to a Watcher when he is not at the side of his Slayer?

-Fin-


End file.
